Juxtaposition
by KitKatt0430
Summary: Post-season 2 AU; Jack/Nathan - How hard can it be to tell dreams from reality? Because either the latest project to malfunction at GD is giving Jack and Nathan weird dreams... or is it Eureka that is the dream?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer – If I owned Eureka, there would be more Jack/Nathan fanservice and the episode "I Do, Over" would have offed some other character. A minor character or a guest actor, perhaps…

A/N – So I realized the other day that it's been a while since I wrote something for Eureka. I'm sort of busy-ish right now (I can no longer afford to live on campus at my college and must move home in a a month or so. Home being twenty minutes from college makes it not that big a deal.) but the plot bunny that has possessed me doesn't give a damn. Yay for the plot bunny… I mean, bad… evil plot bunny… stop possessing me…

Info – AU after the Season 2 finale.

Pairings – Jack/Nathan, Jo/Zane, one-sided Taggart/Jo

Teaser – It had to be the weirdest dream that Jack had ever had. After all, there was no way a town like Eureka could exist and, even if it did, Jack would never be that oblivious to an inordinately sexy man like Stark flirting with him.

_**Juxtaposition**_

_Chapter One_

Jack yawned and stretched his arms as he started towards the station exit. It had been a long, boring day in which no one even got a speeding ticket and Jack wanted to get home to Zoe and SARAH before the spell broke and the natural state of havoc that was Eureka bit him in the ass.

Before he could walk out the door, though, the phone rang. Jack tensed as Jo picked up the phone. He really hoped it wasn't GD and that he wouldn't need to go there and help fix another mess that the so-called-genius scientists made on a nearly weekly basis. Despite the fact that it could be GD and that he was perfectly within his rights to go home because Jo had on-call that evening, Jack lingered and listened to Jo's side of the conversation.

"Dr. Blake," Jo said in a tone of voice somewhere between friendly and resigned. Damn… it was GD. "Of course, I'll be down as soon as possible. Carter?" She looked over at Jack questioningly and he reluctantly nodded. "Yeah, we'll both be there."

Jo hung up the phone and shrugged ruefully. "There's been some sort of malfunction in one of the labs. Dr. Blake was pretty evasive about it. She said someone would explain once we arrive."

Jack held the door for Jo as she walked over and received an eye-roll for his chivalry. "Don't you miss the days when she actually gave us advance warning for whatever idiot thing the people claiming to have high IQs did?"

"Yeah… but then she became The Man of GD."

"You've been watching 'The School of Rock' again, haven't you?"

"Maybe…" Jo refused to meet his eyes as they got into the jeep.

Laughing, Jack started up the car and grabbed his cell phone out of his pocket. He needed to call home and let his kid and his house know that he was going to be late.

-=-=-=

Yawning, Jack sat up and looked around his room in bleary confusion. It took him a minute to remember that he was in his apartment in LA and not in some imaginary place called Eureka.

Shaking his head, Jack flipped off the alarm clock and stood up. It had to be the weirdest dream that Jack had ever had. After all, there was no way a town like Eureka could exist and, even if it did, Jack would never be that oblivious to an inordinately sexy man like Stark flirting with him.

As far as dreams went, though, it wasn't too bad, though. For all the chaos of Eureka, it seemed like a nice place. A lot of familiar people lived there.

Grabbing a suit, Jack padded out into the hall and rapped loudly on Zoe's door as he walked past the door. "Get up, Zo," he added loudly, for good measure.

"Mmmrphm!" was Zoe's muffled response. Jack suspected that she had said something rude and was lucky to still be too incoherent and sleepy to speak properly.

Chuckling, Jack went into the bathroom and hung his clothes on the door and started the shower running. He was in for a long day at the police station. His new partner, Junior Detective Josephina (Jo) Lupo, was a spitfire, much like the Deputy Jo Lupo in his dream. Right now, things were a bit rocky between them, but the relaxed, friendly relationship he'd had with the version of her in his dream gave him hope that maybe they could manage that for real. Though… he'd probably never manage to get her to take notes at a crime scene.

-=-=-=

Nathan walked into his classroom at the university and wondered, not for the first time, how he'd gotten himself into this situation. Allison had this way of being persuasive in a manner that got him to do things that he hated doing. For instance… convincing him that taking a job at her university as a Mathematics professor.

He hated teaching, he hated students, and he hated schmoozing on Allison's behalf for the University. Basically, he really hated Allison right now. At least, he hated her right up until the moment she showed up, batted her eyes, and asked him to do something. For supposedly having a high IQ, Nathan could never seem to see through her ploys until after he was doing something for her again. This was supposed to have ended when they finalized the divorce, dammit.

Of course, Nathan had figured he'd have stopped dreaming about her by now. Except… the dreams weren't about him and her but him and this dream guy – Jack Carter – who seemed like an average sort of person off the street. Only Carter wasn't really average, because then how could he regularly come up with answers to problems that the scientists of Eureka couldn't fix? And there was no way that Nathan could feel so attracted to someone who was 'merely' average. His type had always been quick-thinking, snarky, and sexy, a bill which Jack Carter fit perfectly.

The only problem being that Jack Carter was a dream.

Stupid dreams.

"Nathan, there you are."

Going back to the topic of she-devils… "Yes, because clearly the last place I'd be thirty minutes before my first class starts would be in the classroom making certain that my lecture notes will actually show up on the overhead screen today." The day before, the overhead had been malfunctioning and Nathan had wowed his first period class with a demonstration of applied mathematics in the form of engineering. Then, when the damn thing still wouldn't turn on, he'd smacked it with a screwdriver handle and felt very pleased when it purred life and didn't so much as flicker for the rest of the day.

Allison looked amused; clearly the story had gotten back to her already. "I've recently been approached by the city Mayor's Office with an interesting proposition." She paused and put on her most charming smile. Nathan cringed mentally as he was already well aware that this was not going to end well for him. "It's been put forth that it might be a good idea for our math department to help out the LAPD by analyzing major crimes as they occur."

"Clearly the Mayor's Office has been watching too many episodes of Numb3rs," Nathan drawled. "Please tell me that the reason you're relating this to me is because you thought I'd find it hilarious and not because you did something insane like agree with them."

"It would make for great PR for the university, Nathan," Allison pleaded, batting her eyes.

"Allie…" Nathan wondered exactly how to convey how very unhappy he was here and how much worse this would make him feel.

"Just try it once, Nathan. You could really help make a difference." She beamed at him, patted his arm, and flounced out.

"I didn't say 'yes'," Nathan called after her, completely ineffectually. Eying his empty coffee mug, Nathan decided that he was completely justified in getting another cup. Obviously it was going to be one of _those_ days.

-=-=-=

Jack shifted uncomfortably under the glare that Jo was pinning him with. He'd shown up with Dunkin' Donuts coffee for himself, but none for her, and she was taking it personally. She was his rookie, for goodness sake, yet…

He glared back and, a bit startled, Jo straightened up. A slightly guilty expression stole across her face. Feeling better now, Jack let his glare fade and he smiled at her. "So, Jo, how was your date last night?" The day before, Jo had been going on about a date with a graduate student she'd been looking forward to.

"I… I'm not sure. Zane was cute and funny and… we got along well, but…"

"What?"

"He's a genius and, well, I'm just a detective." She scowled and pulled out her handgun in order to start dismantling it.

"Jo, I highly doubt he was expecting the next Einstein," Jack drawled. Hastily, seeing her glare reappear, he added, "he was probably expecting a beautiful girl, who's intelligent about things other than whatever his field of study is, and would be interesting and fun to converse with."

"Yeah, and he got me," Jo grumped.

"Mmhmm, and if he's really as smart as you think he is, then he realized he got a better date than he'd expected and will be trying for another date with you as soon as possible." Jack grinned, pleased to see a smile work its way onto Jo's face.

"Flatterer."

Laughing, Jack stood up and nodded his head in the Chief's direction. "Looks like we've got a case."

A/N - This is finished and five chapters total. The next installment should be up either tomorrow or Monday; I'm not sure which. I hope what's written so far is enjoyable. ^_^


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer - I spy with my little eye a story full of things I don't own.

A/N - I really miss Taggart. I wish for him to show up when _Eureka_ returns this summer.

_Chapter Two_

Nathan tapped his foot impatiently as Carter and Lupo walked into GD's main floor. "It's about time you got here," he snapped, more irritated with Allison using him as a glorified gofer than with them.

Lupo opened her mouth to retort, but Carter cut her off. "Oh, you know how Eureka's traffic is… at six in the evening."

A corner of Nathan's mouth twitched as he tried to keep from smiling. He could already feel his mood lifting. "Taggart's latest experiment escaped and left him in some kind of coma. We've sealed off the floor Taggart's lab is on, but we don't even know what this creature looks like."

"Coma?" Jo questioned, looking worried. Even though she was dating Zane now, Nathan knew – thanks to the Eureka grapevine – that she'd once had a thing with Taggart and was still good friends with him.

"Allison thinks he'll be fine once we find the animal he made and figure out what it did to him," Nathan told her.

"So we'll need to get the tranq guns from Taggart's lab before we start tracking this thing," Jack observed.

"Where's Doctor Blake?" Jo demanded.

"She's analyzing a compound the animal left behind on Taggart; we don't think it's a toxin, but…" Nathan shrugged. "We'll know more when she's done running tests." Jo nodded, looking mollified. "We should get down there as soon as possible," he added.

"If it's dangerous enough that it got the best of Taggart; you should probably stay here, Stark," Carter objected, appearing worried.

Quirking an eyebrow in surprise, Nathan shrugged. "Whatever it is, it chewed through some of the cabling connecting Taggart's computers to the rest of GD's mainframe. I need to go back down there and retrieve his research."

-=-=-=

Startled awake, Nathan realized he'd fallen asleep at his desk in his office and was very lucky not to have a crick in his neck. Glancing at the clock, he saw that he had about ten minutes before he needed to head back to the lecture hall for his last class of the day (and the week – Fridays were all his).

He was so not staying after this year was up no matter what Allie did.

"Dr. Stark?"

Looking over at the door, Nathan saw his TA, Douglass Fargo, standing there looking kind of nervous. "What is it?"

"Umm… there's a…" there was a loud noise outside and Fargo jumped through the doorway, shutting it firmly behind him.

At first, Nathan couldn't place the noise. He just couldn't imagine something like that happening at this university of all places. It was sleepy, boring, and… and… it was _Allison's_ university, for God's sake. But there was no mistaking the sound of a gunshot for anything else.

"Are there any other students in the hall?" Nathan demanded, standing up and crossing to the door in order to stop Fargo from locking the door prematurely.

"I-I don't think so." Fargo was shaking in fear. "There might have been, but not in this hall…"

"This is a first floor office; go out the window and get help," Nathan commanded.

"Sir? What about you?" Fargo's fear seemed to fade a little and his expression grew determined.

"I have a responsibility to my students to make certain they're safe," Nathan responded, a feeling of calm descending on him. Oddly enough, this felt familiar… like he'd been in a similar situation before. He couldn't for the life of him actually remember when he'd been in this sort of situation, but he knew it hadn't been in a school…

-=-=-=

Jack pulled his car into the university's parking lot and practically leapt from the car. Jo was mere steps behind him. Though their assignment had been to look into a series of burglaries in one of the local neighborhoods but they were been redirected here once the call went out that there were students on campus shooting people.

They hurried over to two of the grad students, one of which was comforting the other. One of them spotted the detectives and relief shone visibly on his face. "Jo, thank god you're here," the guy taller of the two students said.

"Zane, you're okay!" Jo's hugged the guy and Jack realized that this must be the Zane she'd been on the date with the previous night. Belatedly she blushed and pulled away, but Zane looked rather pleased. "Uh, Zane, this is my partner, Detective Carter."

"Despite the circumstances, it's good to meet you, Carter," Zane greeted. "This is my friend, Fargo."

There was something familiar about the duo, something that reminded Jack of his dream that morning. Given the circumstances, though, Jack shoved the dream out of his mind. It wasn't important just now.

"Dr. Stark is still inside the building," Fargo interrupted.

Stark… that was familiar, too…

"Dr. Stark's been getting the students out," Zane chimed in. "My class was on the second floor and he helped us sneak out through a fire escape."

"SWAT is on the way," Jo began.

"Someone needs to get him out now," Fargo interrupted. "He could have gotten out when it first began, but he sent me out through his office window to call in what was happening. If anyone deserves help now, it's him. Please detectives…"

"We need to get an idea of what's going on inside the building, anyway," Jack responded slowly. "The report we received indicates a conflicting number of shooters… Jo, stay here and coordinate with the campus police force and administration. I'm going to take a look around inside. If I find Dr. Stark," he added, giving Fargo as reassuring a look as possible, "I'll convince him to leave with me. Okay?"

"Thank you, Detective Carter."

"Jack… be careful," Jo cautioned.

He couldn't help the grin on his face, though. While he called her Jo all the time – and Josephina when he wanted to irritate her – she had never called him by his first name until now. Looks like he was finally starting to grow on her.

"I'll do my best," Jack promised her. Moving towards the nearest entrance, Jack pulled out his gun and ducked inside.

The door opened and shut with a minimum of noise, which was good. He didn't want to alert anyone to his presence, after all. Grabbing his cell phone, he texted Jo with 'front hall – clear'.

Checking around the corner, Jack heard voices further down the hall.

"Did you hear those gunshots upstairs?" one voice asked.

"You don't think… they haven't found Dr. Stark, have they?"

Jack went around the corner and they froze at the sight of his gun. "I'm Detective Jack Carter of the LAPD," he announced. "The front hall is clear, my partner and the campus police are outside."

"There are three guys with guns; they've taken classes hostage upstairs," one of the two girls told him, both of them looking relieved.

"Good luck," the other one added. They then scurried past him.

Deciding to take them at their word, he pulled his cell out again and texted '3 guns confirmed – 3 classes upstairs hostage' to Jo. Then he took the nearby stairs to the second floor. Carefully peering around a corner, his gun taking the lead, he found himself face to face with someone he never could have expected to see.

The name should have prepared him, but the time that had passed since his dream had dulled the memory. Now, though, everything came rushing back. Jack knew that there was shock written on his face.

He wasn't the only one staring in shock, though. Surprised recognition was written across Doctor Nathan Stark's face as well.

-=-=-=

The gun lowered slowly. "You must be Dr. Stark," Carter said slowly.

"Y-yeah."

"I'm Detective Carter." Jack looked curious, "have we met before?"

"No, but then… you seem familiar to me," Nathan admitted. He didn't mean to admit that much, but the dream he'd had the night before was suddenly weighing all too heavily on his mind.

"SWAT is on its way, Dr. Stark," Carter said after a momentary pause. He seemed as thrown by the familiarity between them as Nathan was. "You should get out of here."

"There are still students up here…"

"You're a civilian, Stark. I'll get them out of here while you get yourself to safety."

"I can't just leave my students," Nathan began to object.

"There are a lot of students out there," Carter gestured to the window, "who want to see for themselves that you're safe." He gave Nathan a look that the scientist now recognized from his dreams. "You're an unarmed civilian. You have no means to protect yourself if they decide to shoot you."

"I know that, Carter. As a professor here, these students are my responsibility. I have to help them get out if I can."

"None of the other professors are taking their duty to the students this seriously," Carter objected.

"I'm not other professors," Nathan snapped.

"No… you aren't are you?" Jack shook his head slowly. "I need to identify the classrooms that have been taken by the gunmen."

"This way."

A/N - I admit I was a bit iffy on the plot of a school shooting. I've never experienced one personally or known anyone who has, but I do know that the experience can be pretty harrowing. School is a place, much like home, where most people expect to be safe. I decided to go ahead with this and must simply hope that it won't offend anyone. The whole idea was inspired by a recent episode of Numb3rs (the one with the guy who was kind of crazy and wanted to stop animal testing at Cal Sci because he sort of worshiped animals...) and I must say that I absolutely love that show.

If anyone is wondering what university Nathan works at, it would probably be Cal Sci... but that's assuming that everything going on in the LA sections are real. For now, I'll let you be the judge of that, my dear readers. Anywho, I'll try and update again tomorrow, but don't be surprised if I don't remember until Tuesday.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer – If I owned Eureka, there would be more Jack/Nathan fanservice and the episode "I Do, Over" would have offed some other character. A minor character or a guest actor, perhaps…

A/N - After fourteen years of being my faithful companion, my terrior, Patches, will be put to sleep this Friday. She was diagnosed with cancer over the summer and has hung on as long as she can. As much as I love her and as much as I'll miss her, I can tell that its time. She taught my family how to accurately follow her nonverbal commands and how happiness can be a warm puppy snuggling next to us on a chair. She licked my tears when I was sad. When my dad broke his shoulder and passed out from the shock/pain while alone in the house, Patches woke him up and stuck next to him for a few weeks out of concern. She ignored Tootsie (our dachshund) until she realized that pretending something doesn't exist won't make it go away and that playing with another dog can be fun. As I see how tired, confused, and uncoordinated she's become because of her recen deafness and illness, I know that its time to let her go and that she'll have the angels well trained in the art of giving her tummy-rubs in no time.

_Chapter Three_

Jack kept glancing over at Stark as he and Jo prepped three tranq guns. "If you need anything…"

"I'll use the comms," Nathan responded, looking amused. "Worried about me, Sheriff?"

"I don't like having civilians in dangerous situations," Jack told him.

"I'm not exactly the average civilian," Nathan protested. "I do know how to take care of myself."

"You're still a civilian."

Jo snickered, "he'll be fine, Carter."

"Here," Jack handed over the tranq gun. "You do know how to use this, right?"

"I have used a gun before, Sheriff," Nathan drawled.

"The goo gun doesn't count as an actual weapon," Jack countered.

"I wasn't referring to that."

"Good." Jack headed out the door with Jo on his heels. She kept giving him curious looks. "Jo, what do you want to ask?"

"You've been acting kind of… different towards Stark lately. Has something changed between the two of you?"

"What?" Jack gave her a 'what the hell are you asking' look. "

"Have you two buried the hatchet or something?" she clarified.

"I guess…" Jack shrugged. "It's not like we've actually talked anything out, Jo. We're just… being nicer to each other."

"And getting worried about each other before things go wrong. It used to be that it wasn't until one of you was in trouble that the other would get antsy." Jo paused and then added, "sometimes it sounds more like you're flirting with one another than arguing these days."

"What?!" Jack winced and tried to pretend the word hadn't come out sounding like a squawk.

"Jack… if you like him, be careful. You're a good friend and I'd hate to see you get hurt," she cautioned.

"I appreciate the sentiment, Jo, but I don't like Stark."

"Oh, really, so you weren't staring at his ass earlier?"

"Josephina…"

"_You were_, weren't you?"

"He's… he's the type of guy I always go for when it comes to men," Jack confessed.

"Really?" Jack didn't have to look at Jo to know that her eyebrows had just shot up. "Does Zoe know you're bi?"

"She knows both her parents are bi," Jack elaborated. "When Abby started seeing Lilly Atwater, we both told Zoe about our past dating history. It was an… interesting conversation, to say the least."

Jo snickered in amusement. "I can imagine." She paused and then said, "okay, now I'm really curious. How is Stark your type?"

"He's… he's handsome and can be charming and funny when he wants to," Jack sighed, giving up in the face of Jo's curiosity.

"He's smart, too. Abby, Allison, Callie… albeit, they're women, but it's obvious you've got a thing for intelligence, Carter," Jo added with a smirk.

"Only the interesting ones," Jack corrected her.

"So, cute, charming, funny, smart… what else?" Jo pressed.

"_Nathan, Jack, Jo,"_ Allison's voice crackled through their headsets, _"we're ready to try and wake Taggart. You should all be here when we do."_

Tapping the comm in his ear to activate the microphone, Jack responded; "Jo and I are on our way to get Stark."

"_I can get to the elevators on my own, Carter."_

"Until we get more information on this, you shouldn't be in the corridors alone, Stark," Jack retorted. "It's bad enough you're alone in that lab…"

"_Fine, fine. I never realized you could be such a mother hen, Sheriff."_

-=-=-=

Jack felt his heart hammering in his chest. The instant recognition of and attraction to Nathan Stark was alarming and somewhat distracting. He should have dragged the doctor out of the building kicking and screaming and turned him over to Jo, who would be more than capable of keeping Stark out of trouble. Yet his dreams told him that when Stark put his mind to something there was no stopping him.

So, instead of doing the reasonable thing and getting the civilian out of the building, Jack reluctantly pulled out his second gun and handed it to Stark. "Do you know how to use this?"

"Yes…" with equal reluctance, Nathan took the gun.

"Don't point it at anyone unless you have to."

Nathan nodded solemnly. "The classrooms are all in this hall," he gestured to three doors that were all on the same side of hall. "I've gotten everyone out of the other three halls up here, but I haven't tried anything in this one. Aside from those three classes, there are two more that are in session." He indicated the two doors closest to them.

"That class," the door he pointed to was one of the classes that had been taken hostage, "is mine. It was about ten minutes till the class started when everything happened; I was lucky to still be in my office."

Nathan didn't sound like he felt lucky. He sounded like he felt guilty. His students, the ones he taught personally, were still in danger and he wasn't there with them. Suddenly Jack could understand a lot better why Stark didn't want to leave yet.

The vibrating in Jack's pocket alerted him to a text from Jo. He pulled it to see 'SWAT here. Get out ASAP'.

In response he texted back 'room numbers 204, 205, 207 hostage'.

"SWAT is here," Jack added aloud. "You get that classroom," he gestured to one of the classes that wasn't being held hostage, "and I'll get the other. We'll take them out with us, okay?"

"Right."

"Make sure they know to stay quiet and to keep their heads down."

"I know, Sh-Detective."

Jack jerked and stared at Stark in surprise. "We need to talk when this is over." Shaking his head, he crept over to the door he'd chosen for himself, ignoring Stark's reaction. Opening the door, he pulled out his badge for the class to see. "I'm Detective Carter," he announced quietly, but still loud enough for the students to hear. Putting the badge away when the closest students confirmed it was genuine, Jack pushed the door until it hooked onto the doorstop. "SWAT is on its way up set a perimeter so that negotiations can begin, but first we need to get all of you out of danger. I need you all to come with me as quietly as you can and try to stay near the wall until we're around the corner outside, okay?"

The students immediately lined up to file out of classroom, following Jack's directions all the way around the corner to the stairs. Just behind them were Nathan and the class of students he'd gone to retrieve.

Once they got outside, Jack grabbed Stark's arm and hissed, "we need to talk later."

"What? Why?"

"Earlier, you nearly called me 'Sheriff'. You've been dreaming of a place called Eureka, haven't you?" Jack felt Nathan stiffen before the man nodded. Releasing Stark's arm, he added, "what's your cell number. I can call you when I'm free."

"Um… hold on." Stark pulled out a business card from an inner pocket on his suit jacket and scribbled a number on the back. "That's my cell number."

Nodding, Jack took the card, stuffed it in his pocket, and then held his hand out to retrieve his gun, which immediately went back into his ankle holster. "I'll call you as soon as I'm free."

-=-=-=

Hours later, Nathan was still at the school, having just gotten out of a meeting with Allie and some of the other Professors. The whole thing had basically been a waste of time; all Allison had been able to tell them was that there had been no fatalities and the three gunmen had been taken into custody. Nathan was hoping that when he talked to the Detective later he'd have a chance to learn more.

RING!!!

Nathan glanced at the phone before flipping it open. He didn't recognize the number, but he had a good guess at who it was. "Dr. Stark," he said into the receiver.

"This is Detective Carter." Nathan couldn't help the smirk that stole its way onto his face. He'd been correct about who was calling. "Do you have time to talk over coffee?"

"Yeah, I'm free for the rest of the day. Where do you want to meet?"

"There's a little place called Café Latte that has some of the best coffee in the city," Jack said and then rattled off the address.

"Got it. I'll head on over," Nathan heard a similar affirmative from Carter and then snapped the phone shut. He hesitated a moment, though, before getting into his car. What exactly was he getting into? The dreams about Eureka were just that – dreams. But then… why did Carter know about his dreams?

In fact, why was Carter in his dreams? And, judging from the surprised recognition on Jack's face when they first saw each other, it seemed that Jack was having the same dreams.

Sighing, Nathan opened the car door and got inside. He knew the area where the café was located; it wouldn't take long to get there and he would, hopefully, be able to get his questions answered without much fuss.

Besides… Jack Carter was rather attractive. Even if the dreams amounted to nothing, maybe meeting the man would prove to be interesting for other reasons.

A/N - The next update should be either tomorrow or Thursday. Incidently, Thursday is the day of my first exam... at 8:00am. I hate early exams...


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer – If I owned Eureka, there would be more Jack/Nathan fanservice and the episode "I Do, Over" would have offed some other character. A minor character or a guest actor, perhaps…

_Chapter Four_

Taggart was awake by the time they got back to the lab.

Immediately the Aussie began explaining what had happened. He'd created a genetically altered skunk that produced a sleep-inducing chemical instead of the usual stink-spray. It was supposed to be a formula created by Dr. Suenos, but Taggart had miscalculated on a few of the gene sequences and wound up with a skunk capable of eating through steel, if the bars were thin enough, and sending people into dreams that they had to fight to get out of.

Taggart wouldn't say much about his dream, just that at first it had seemed as though Eureka was the dream and the world his mind created because of the chemical had seemed ideal. He'd been happy and it was only because he'd begun to notice 'holes' – vague imperfections – in the dreams that he'd fought to wake up. He avoided Jo's gaze the entire time he spoke, leaving Nathan with the impression that Taggart hadn't quite moved on from his feelings for Lupo and that she'd factored greatly into Taggart's dream world.

"Taggart woke up before we could administer the antidote," Allison said, once Taggart was done talking, "so we still don't know if it works or not. Whatever you do, don't let it spray any of you."

It was all Nathan could do to keep from rolling his eyes. Allie had a real flare for stating the obvious at times.

"With Taggart awake, are the files on his computer necessary anymore?" Jack asked.

"Nah, mate," Taggart spoke up again. "I've a memory like a steel trap. All the info we need's right here." He tapped the side of his head, but Nathan wasn't particularly reassured by the gesture.

"I still want to have the data on hand, just in case that steel trap snaps shut," Allison drawled, giving Taggart an annoyed look. "We've managed to use heat sensors to pinpoint the skunk's location; it isn't near the lab, so Nathan will be safe enough while you and Jo tranq the creature, Carter." This time she was giving Jack a pointed look. Carter just shrugged in response.

Nathan frowned and wondered if there was some way he could convince Lupo to conduct the info download so that he could get Carter alone. The Sheriff had been acting odd lately and Nathan wanted to get some answers without an audience around.

Besides… it would give him a chance to fully appreciate just how well Jack filled out his uniform without worrying about someone watching him stare at Jack.

-=-=-=

Nathan walked into the café and, after a quick glance, located Jack. From the look of it this was the sort of café where there were waitresses that actually took your order, so he seated himself across from the Detective. The waitress immediately appeared to take his order – coffee, black – and then flitted off again, leaving the two in relative privacy.

"Can you tell me what happened in the classes that were held hostage?" Nathan asked, deciding to leave the stuff about Eureka until later. His students were more important.

"One of the Professors, a Dr. Taggart, got shot in the leg, but he's recovering. There are three students that were shot, but they were non-fatal wounds as well. A few other rounds were shot into walls to intimidate the hostages, but no one died." Jack paused and took a drink of his coffee, waiting while the waitress briefly reappeared to drop off Nathan's drink before continuing. "None of them will explain why they did this. Two of them are students at the university, but the third, the one holding your class hostage, was Dr. Filbert."

"Doctor James Filbert?" Nathan asked slowly.

"Yes, do you know him?"

"I'm not sure… the name is familiar, but I can't remember why." Nathan frowned at how elusive the memory was being. This was so frustrating. First the dreams of Eureka leading him to Carter and now the elusive, not-quite-there memory of Dr. Filbert… Nathan was starting to wonder just what was going on here.

"One of the students who was in on the situation, Markus Landau, seems familiar like that to me too. It's like a word that's on the tip of my tongue, but I can't say it… only with a memory." Jack shook his head slowly, "what's going on here?"

"It's like the dreams of Eureka," Nathan observed, taking a drink from his coffee. "When I first woke up this morning, and later when I saw you for the first time, the dreams was vivid in my mind. Now, though, I really only remember the parts with you with any sort of clarity."

"Nice to know I'm so memorable," Carter teased. "I know what you mean, though. I only really remember the parts of the dream with you in them too, Scientist." His phone started chiming and he fiddled with it. "Sorry, I had the alarm set to remind me when Zoe gets out of school. I need to go pick her up."

"Your daughter?" When Jack nodded, Nathan tried not to look disappointed. "Are you married?"

"Divorced," Jack responded with a smile. "You're divorced, too, aren't you?"

"Yeah…" the disappointment was gone. Nathan was very glad that his 'dream' version of Carter had been so accurate.

"We'll have to talk some more about this later," Jack said, standing up and pushing away from the table.

"Allison, she's the Dean of my department at the university –"

"And your ex-wife," Jack cut in, a flash of jealousy shooting across his face.

"And my ex-wife," Nathan agreed, "has decided that lending a scientist to the police to help analyze crime would make for a great PR stunt. She wants me to do it. I wasn't too happy when she first pitched the idea, but now that I've met you…"

A bright smile, so familiar from Nathan's dreams, lit up Jack's face. "She's a fan of _Numb3rs_, isn't she?" Nathan's laughter made Jack's grin brighter. "Well, I'll be seeing you, then."

-=-=-=

About four days passed before Jack saw Nathan again. Despite the continuing dreams of Eureka, he managed to put the situation out of mind. The sight of the sexy, snarky scientist, however, brought all the weirdness rushing back.

As luck would have it, the Chief foisted off the scientist onto Jack and Jo. On one hand, it made figuring out what was going on with their shared dreams easier. On the other hand… Nathan Stark filled out suits in a way that had to be sinful because Jack could not keep his eyes off the man. Before he'd been too preoccupied to realize just how sexy beyond sexy Stark was but now his eyes were following the scientist without his permission. Worse, Nathan appeared perfectly aware of how damn hot he looked and seemed to enjoy messing with Jack's mind by using snarky innuendos that, fortunately, went over Jo's head even though Jack immediately recognized them.

Working with Nathan was fun, though. Somehow working together turned into meeting for coffee regularly, which in turn became lunch dates, then dinner dates, and finally bringing Nathan home to meet Zoe.

Zoe was dubious of Nathan at first and Nathan was very afraid of being disapproved of. He knew how much Jack adored Zoe and her say-so could make or break the relationship growing between the two men. In the end, though, she decided she rather liked Nathan and the way he made her father smile. Then she hit him up for homework help on her advanced physics course.

Not much headway was made about the dreams. After a while, they sort of forgot about them altogether, despite still having them every night. Life was good and Jack and Nathan were happier together than they could ever remember being before.

-=-=-=

Nathan jerked upright in bed, breathing heavily from a nightmare. For the first night in forever, he hadn't dreamed of Eureka. He dreamed of a time before Eureka…

The day before Nathan and Jack had spent the day in court over the circumstances that had first brought them together – the hostage situation at the university. Dr. Filbert had been present and Nathan had spent most of his time there searching his memories, trying to place Filbert. At the time he'd had no success and had finally decided that the Doctor must have been jealous of him for some reason. Certainly Dr. Filbert's testimony indicated no familiarity towards Nathan, though the students that Filbert had held hostage testified that the Doctor had seemed to want to harm Nathan in particular.

But now, he was sitting and shaking as the memory played itself vividly in his mind.

Nathan had only recently achieved his Masters in physics at the time and just been chosen for the coveted position of Henry Deacon's assistant. The other front runners for the position accepted defeat in manners ranging from graceful to unbelievably rude, but one man had refused to admit that Nathan deserved the position. James Filbert managed to attain a position in the same lab building that Henry and Nathan had been working in and came to work one day with the intention of killing Nathan.

Nathan, however, had fallen asleep during his lunch break that day and woke with ten minutes left to get back to work. He'd arrived at the building with two minutes to spare only to learn that his lab had been taken hostage by Filbert. He managed to convince the rest of the scientists to evacuate while they waited for the police to arrive and, in the middle of taking charge and overseeing the exodus, he heard the sound of gunshots and then, for what felt like a painful eternity, there was silence.

When Henry walked out and put the gun on the ground, no one knew what to think. Calm, but clearly shell shocked, Henry explained that he'd fought Filbert for the gun, which went off during the fight. Filbert shot himself in the chest and lay dead in the lab.

He remembered walking into the room in order to help the two lab techs – interns from one of the local colleges – and not being able to take his eyes off James Filbert's dead body. When one of the interns told him that Filbert had been there to kill him specifically, Nathan only just barely managed not to throw up. As it was, the knowledge that someone had wanted to kill him and had died instead made him unbelievably nauseous.

Even now, years later, the knowledge left Nathan cold and shaken.

"Nathan?" Jack's voice was sleepy. Nathan felt his lover sit up and slide his arms around Nathan's shoulders. "What's wrong?" Jack was more alert now. "You're shaking like a leaf.

Turning, Nathan buried himself in Jack's warm embrace. In the detective's arms he felt safe from the terrible memory. "I remember who James Filbert was."

A/N – This has been a horrid day for me. I only got two hours of sleep last night; I had a Physics test at 8:00am; Patches was put to sleep a day early (instead of tomorrow) because she can't eat anymore and has trouble getting up (as in, she's clearly in pain when she stands up); my apartment developed a leak in the ceiling because my upstairs neighbor's air conditioner was leaking; the first time I called the emergency service request number, the lady who answered was adamant that my leaky ceiling was not going to be treated as an emergency even though it was (the second lady I talked to was helpful and the repair guy was very glad I called it in before any serious damage was done); and I'm fairly certain I'm going to fail my Discrete Math exam on Friday. :( Thanks for letting me vent, guys.

Reviews would certainly cheer me up... as will the new episode of _Dollhouse _on Friday. ^_^


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer – If I owned Eureka, there would be more Jack/Nathan fanservice and the episode "I Do, Over" would have offed some other character. A minor character or a guest actor, perhaps…

_Chapter Five_

Jack really hadn't meant to get into another argument with Stark, but the scientist just _had_ to crack one too many 'mother hen' jokes during the elevator ride and Jack snapped. Jo, of course, was having none of it.

Jo told them that they were both staying in the lab together and she would go tranq the skunk herself because she refused to put up with Jack 'whining about Stark being an ass' or Stark 'whining because Carter was overprotective'. She glared at them both, told them to get their heads on straight, and that if they were still fighting when she got back she'd eviscerate them.

It was the evisceration threat that kept Jack from voicing a 'yes, mother'.

So now the two were sitting in the lab, twiddling their thumbs as the data downloaded. Neither man wanted to be the first to disobey Jo while she was in 'uber-scary' mode.

"I don't get you, Sheriff." Nathan was the first to give in and break the silence.

"Huh? Just what don't you get?"

"Allison shot me down months ago; I thought you'd have made your move by now." A sort of mortified expression briefly stole its way across Stark's face, as though he hadn't meant to say that aloud.

Jack was too confused to be offended. Just _where_ was this coming from? "Do you want me to make a move on her?"

"No!"

"Then count your blessings that I haven't," Jack said snippily. Okay, so maybe he was still a little offended. The way Nathan blanched at Jack's response, however, made Jack feel bad for snapping at the scientist. "Have you ever considered that there is someone I'm more attracted to than Allison around and _that's_ why I'm not 'making a move' on her?" From the look of surprise on Nathan's face, Jack could see that idea had never occurred to him.

"I like Allison, a lot," Jack continued. "The thing is, though, that I only like her as a friend. Yeah, she and I flirt a lot, but we both recognize that it's friendly banter only, not something actually serious. If the person I really like weren't around, I probably would ask her out, though, and it might even work out between her and I. But he is here and as long as he is, I can't be anything more than friends with Allison because it wouldn't be fair to either of us. What I feel for her isn't even a fraction of what I feel for him."

"He?" Oh, good, so Nathan caught that. "Who is he?"

Jack hoped that he wasn't imagining the hopeful tone of voice Nathan was using as he decided to take a gamble. Closing the distance between them, Jack put his hands on Nathan's shoulders and kissed the other man. There was a moment of shocked frozenness before Nathan was kissing back and all thoughts of why they were in the lab went out the window.

-=-=-=

Jack held Nathan, instinctively rubbing circles on the shaking man's back. He hated seeing Nathan this way, hurting from something that was just a memory… something that _couldn't_ be a memory, though.

After all, James Filbert was alive and in police custody awaiting the jury's decision once the trial eventually ended. Except, Nathan's recollection of Filbert's death triggered something in Jack's mind, too.

"Markus Landau… I remember who he was, too," Jack finally said. "He was a friend of my roommate's at college. His parents disowned him for being gay and he was clinically depressed. He wound up being drawn into a small, local cult and, when they committed mass suicide, Markus died while the cult leader left the city with his follower's money. I didn't know Markus well, but… what happened to him inspired me to join the US Marshalls… except…"

"Except you aren't a Marshall and he isn't dead," Nathan filled in.

"I'm not and he isn't, yet the Markus I remember would have been as easily influence by someone trying to terrorize a school campus as he was by the cult. The way his parent's treated him really skewed a lot of his views towards himself and the world in general." Jack rested his head against Nathan's shoulder and let his eyes close.

"What's the name of the university you work at?" Jack asked quietly after a long moment.

"What?" Nathan pulled away and turned around to face Jack. "We've been dating how long and you're asking this now? You should know this, Jack; you've been there."

"Just answer the question, Nathan."

"It's… it's called…" Nathan floundered, unable to remember.

"I don't know what my daughter's high school is called or the Police Chief's real name. Your TA, Fargo: what classes is he taking? Have you even seen Kevin lately?" Jack pressed the issue, but Nathan couldn't seem to answer any of the questions. "None of this is real, Nathan. I remember now; Taggart's stupid skunk got us and we're trapped together in some sort of shared dream."

-=-=-=

Nathan could remember it clearly now.

He and Jack were kissing – the feel and taste of Jack had been as addictive then as it was now – and Nathan completely lost track of time. He missed the sound of the computer telling him that Taggart's files had successfully downloaded into the external hard drive. They both missed the sound of Jo reporting that she cornered the skunk.

They didn't, however, miss the loud exclamation of 'oh shit!' when Jo lost the skunk, which proved to be faster than the average skunk.

"It's heading towards the lab, Carter!" Jo yelled through the comm.

Watching Jack tap his earpiece and struggle to get his breathing even, Nathan disconnected the hard drive from the computer and listened as Jack replied. "I read you, Jo." He picked up his tranq gun again and peered out into the hallway. "How far away is it?"

"You should see it any minute," Jo responded.

Grabbing the drive and his own tranq gun, Nathan joined Jack by the door. "There," he pointed with his gun and tried shooting it.

The little skunk narrowly missed the darts, just barely too fast to be hit. Jack also took aim – his shots coming much closer – and the Sheriff started cursing Taggart when the skunk veered out of the way into an air vent. The duo watched the walls nervously, trying to figure out just which vent the skunk would come tearing out of.

Jack must have seen something out of the corner of his eye, because the next thing Nathan knew Jack was trying to pull him out of the way while also shooting a few more tranq darts. Nathan saw the darts hit and the skunk fall unconscious, but it was too late. The skunk got them, too.

Nathan remembered falling to the floor, tangled with Jack, and then waking up in the dream.

"This all feels so real, though," Nathan muttered and then, as if to prove his point, he kissed Jack.

Moaning softly, Jack agreed, "yeah… definitely feels real… Nnnhh…" he cut off as Nathan began kissing at his neck. "We… we've got our lives to get back to, though."

"I want you in my life, Jack," Nathan said, pulling away and growing serious. "I need you in my life. After Allison turned down my proposal, I came to realize that the real reason I was trying to salvage my marriage to her was because I was afraid to let go of the past. Once I figured that out, it was obvious to me that I wasn't jealous of you… I was jealous of her. All that time wasted because I wasn't paying attention to what I really felt…"

Already the world around them was fading away as reality set in and their minds began to wake up.

"Of course you're going to have me in your life," Jack kissed Nathan on the forehead. "I love you, Nathan."

"Love you, Jack," Nathan managed to reply before everything went completely dark and he was left alone in the emptiness.

-=-=-=

Jack woke up in stages. At first he couldn't understand why Nathan wasn't there with him, but then he remembered that had been a dream. He wasn't clear on whether it was just his dream, though. _Had_ Nathan shared it? Or was that just wishful thinking?

His eyes opened next and saw Zoe sitting there, holding his hand. "Dad! You're awake… Allison! My Dad's awake!" she shouted, tightening her hold on his hand.

"Carter, you okay there?" Jo asked from where she was sitting on the nearest of the beds. Zane was seated next to her, his arms loosely wrapped around the Deputy's slim shoulders.

"I… I'm fine," Jack said and sat up, squeezing Zoe's hand reassuringly. "Sorry I've worried you," he said quietly to just his daughter.

"Make it up to me by letting me go camping this weekend with Pilar, Lucas, and the others," Zoe teased, though hopeful he'd say yes. "You know Lucas is totally trustworthy after all."

"I admit, he is suitably afraid of me and the gun I carry," Jack teased back. "I'll think about it," he added.

"Good to see you're awake, Carter," Allison greeted, looking partly relieved. "Hopefully that means Nathan will be waking soon, too."

"He's not awake yet?" Jack started to get out of the bed.

"Carter, you shouldn't be getting up yet," Allison objected while Zoe chimed in with, "Dad, stay put. You just woke up from dreams sent to you from a skunk. Just… take it easy…"

"I need to see him," Jack insisted. Looking around the room (and, oddly enough, finally noticing that he was still in uniform and hadn't been changed into one of those ridiculous hospital gowns), Jack located Nathan a few beds down. Before anyone could stop him, he walked over to Nathan's side and put a hand on his scientist's shoulder. "Hey, wake up," he said insistently. "Come on, scientist."

In response, Nathan's brow furrowed and he groaned softly.

"Nathan, wake up," Jack repeated.

The green eyes that opened up to see Jack had to be the most beautiful he'd ever seen.

"Jack?"

"Welcome back, Nathan," Jack greeted, brushing his fingers lightly through Nathan's dark, curly hair.

Nathan sat up, his right hand reaching up automatically to catch Jack's. "How long was…" he paused, seeming a bit confused. "How long?" he finally ended with.

"You were both unconscious for about three hours," Allison filled in, smirking at the sight of the two men holding hands. "From what we could tell, the two of you were sharing the same dream. Looks like it was a good one, huh?"

"Yeah," Jack grinned impishly and seated himself beside Nathan. "You could definitely say that." A look of relief crossed Nathan's face at Jack's words and the revelation that they'd definitely been having the same dream.

"Huh…" Zoe commented, looking between the two men. "Couldn't you two have waited just another two weeks? I had twenty bucks riding on Vince's betting pool."

"Oh don't be such a sore loser," Zane interrupted. "I didn't win either – I had three weeks ago – but they look happy."

"I won," Allison said brightly. "Though I have to split the winnings with Abby when she visits for your birthday, Zoe."

"That's… really kind of disturbing," Jo voiced.

"Ignoring the fact that our ex-wives were betting on when we'd get together," Nathan spoke up, "which, incidentally, _is_ really disturbing, did the antidote not work? Or was it not used on us for some reason?"

"It worked in that it neutralized the chemical in your bodies, but it didn't do anything to wake you up," Allison admitted guiltily. "I'm sorry I couldn't do more."

"Don't worry about it," Nathan reassured her. His attention was on Jack, though, and he couldn't quite keep the wide smile off his face. "We… uh, put the time to good use."

End

A/N – So there you have it. This was partially inspired by the fact that there aren't enough things out there making fun of _Numb3rs_. I love that show, but it could use a little spoofing in other fandoms. Just imagine the plot bunnies the spoofing could spawn. :) Hehehe…

Well, despite the fact that I'm fairly certain I did indeed flunk my Discrete Math final, I'm having a pretty good day. I've finally started playing Tales of the Abyss. It's fun so far, though it lacks the instant appeal of Tales of Symphonia. (In fact I'm sort of surprised that people think Abyss is better than Symphonia. Abyss isn't bad or anything, it just isn't living up to the sheer awesomeness of Symphonia yet. Maybe I just haven't reached the good part yet, or something.) I'm really enjoying the game so far and it's doing a great job of lifting my spirits after that horrid test. (Only three exams left. Woohoo!)


End file.
